Tuning In: Patriots tight ends have Shannon Sharpe's endorsement

Friday

Sep 7, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Bill Doyle Tuning In

Shannon Sharpe knows the tight end position as well as anyone. When the former Bronco and Raven retired after the 2001 season, his 815 catches, 10,060 receiving yards and 62 touchdowns were NFL career records for tight ends.

But he’s still amazed by the production of Patriots tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” the NFL Today analyst told the Telegram & Gazette. “In all my years of playing, I’ve never seen a team have that kind of quality at the tight end position.”

Sharpe was the same height as the 6-foot-2, 245-pound Hernandez, but played 15 pounds lighter.

Sharpe marvels at how someone as huge as the 6-6, 265-pound Gronkowski can get down field to catch 17 touchdown passes last season, setting an NFL record for tight ends.

“Gronkowski only weighs,” Sharpe said, “about 10 pounds less than Gary Zimmerman, my Hall of Fame tackle, and this guy is running down the field catching touchdowns.”

Zimmerman, a first-team All-Pro selection five times, actually weighed about 30 pounds more than Gronkowski, but Sharpe’s point still stands.

Like Hernandez, Sharpe tried to match up against a linebacker and run routes like a wide receiver. Gronk takes a different path.

“Gronkowski is an old throwback,” Sharpe said. “He’s more of a barroom type. He’s going to bang into people, what I call bumper-car tight end. He likes to bang into people and get separation that way. Myself and Hernandez, we don’t like people touching us. We like operating in space.”

Usually, when a team lines up two tight ends, defenses automatically think the team is going to run the ball.

“Not with New England,” Sharpe said. “If you stay with your base defense, you’re in trouble because that means you’re going to have a linebacker and a safety guarding Gronkowski and Hernandez, and you have no chance.”

“Linebackers are too slow,” said Phil Simms, NFL lead analyst for CBS. “Safeties are too small. So the matchups are horrendous a lot of times for the defense.”

Simms said he’s anxious to see what the defenses will come up with to try and stop New England’s tight ends this season.

“Are the defenses in the NFL,” he asked, “going to get a little revenge for being mistreated all year last year?”

Simms will analyze the Patriots’ season opener at Tennessee at 1 p.m. Sunday on CBS (Channel 4). Jim Nantz will handle the play-by-play.

“I remember our tight ends,” said NFL Today analyst Dan Marino, the former Miami QB, “struggling to get off the line of scrimmage at times, and now they just line up and run off the ball. It changes how you look at matchups, especially down the middle of the field, especially with a guy like Gronkowski that’s huge, that’s got great hands, that can run and jump. Hernandez, he’s a smaller guy, but he can be very versatile.”

The Patriots even used Hernandez in the backfield late last season.

Simms labeled the Patriots’ offensive line troubles “worrisome,” but attributed New England’s 1-3 preseason record to playing it vanilla and safe. He and Nantz think the Pats are headed for a great year.

“I think the Patriots have only strengthened their team,” Nantz said. “I think the Patriots, again, if you had to pick one team to be the favorite to take the AFC, you start right there in New England, a decisive favorite over the rest of the division.”